1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electrical structures of the class which comprise one or more wire conductors attached to a supporting substrate or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to such structures and their method of fabrication wherein the wires are stitched to the substrate. The invention relates also to a parabolic antenna having a wire screen reflector fabricated by the stitching technique.
2. Prior Art
As will appear from the ensuing description, the wire stitching method of the invention may be employed to fabricate a variety of electrical structures of the class described. One useful application of the invention involves the fabrication of a wire mesh or screen structure for use as an antenna reflector. The invention will be described in this context.
One well known form of directional communication antenna has a parabolic radiation reflector and a feed horn at the focus of the reflector. In the transmitting mode of such an antenna, electromagnetic radiation emanates rearwardly from the horn toward the reflector and is then reflected forward from the reflector in the form of a radiation beam. In the receiving mode of the antenna, incoming radiation incident on the reflector is reflected forwardly toward the feed horn in the form of a convergent beam which is focussed at the horn.
The reflectors for such antennas assume various forms. Some reflectors, for example, are rigid parabolic dishes. Other reflectors comprise rigid parabolic sections which are supported for movement between a compact contracted configuration and a deployed parabolic dish configuration. Yet other reflectors comprise a flexible sheet or sheet-like electromagnetically reflective material and a supporting frame which may be folded or otherwise deformed to a compact contracted configuration and unfolded to deployed parabolic dish configuration. In some cases, the foldable reflective material comprises a wire mesh or screen. An antenna reflector of this latter kind is disclosed in the copending application mentioned earlier.
Fabrication of such a wire mesh or wire screen antenna presents one problem with which this invention is concerned. The problem referred to involves attachment of the wire screen to its supporting frame. According to one of its more limited aspects, this invention provides a novel wire screen antenna reflector of this kind and a novel method of fabricating the reflector. As will appear from the ensuing description, this fabricating method involves a novel method of attaching wires to a supporting substrate or the like. A broader aspect of the invention is concerned with this attaching method per se.